By Sean Gannon

February 21, 2020

Sadly, for Vikings fans everywhere Everson Griffen decided to opt out of his contract and void the remaining few years with the Vikings and enter the free agent pool, as in my opinion one of the top free agents out there today. As a Minnesota Viking fan I am sad to see Griffin leave as he has been a staple of the Vikings for the last decade and has become a man of the people in Minnesota, compiling four pro-bowls and 74.5 sacks along the way. In my opinion he is a forever Viking no matter where he signs, and wherever he does is getting a hell of a player that will bring a defensive to the next level. While this move is coated with sadness for me there is a silver lining in the for the Vikings organization. They are in one of the worst cap space positions in the entire NFL with just around 1.3 million dollars to work, with Griffen voiding his contract the Vikings free up 13.9 million in cap while only eating 800,000 in dead money. This is HUGE for two major reasons.

The first is this Griffen while he had a great year, the Vikings have a young rising stud in Ifeadi Odenigbo, who played 33.5% of the defensive snaps and still compiled 7 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 2 fumble recoveries, and one defensive touchdown, oh and did I mention he’s only twenty-five? They want him to get more playing time and Griffen feels that his worth is still as an above 80% of defensive snaps kind of player and will not sit on the bench to watch. Which I understand and respect when you’ve had such a successful career. In which case this was good timing for both the organization and the player, and the Vikings can now take this excess cap space to go after a free agent like their very own Anthony Harris who was playing as one of the best safeties in the league in 2019.

The second is that Griffen is the ultimate franchise and team player. With him opting out of his contract he is a free agent which also means the Vikings can resign him and restructure a contract for him that can give him more money either through cash or in terms of signing a bonus. Although it feels like with this move Griffen may want out completely this is still an option for both sides. On top of this with the restructure of the contract that could still allow a decent amount of cap back to also go after Anthony Harris and sure up there secondary for next year guaranteed.

In either scenario, while it may be sad to see Griffen leave, the Vikings get much needed capital that they did not have before which ultimately will allow them more flexibility as the season progresses. With Griffen doing this so early in the offseason also allows the Vikings an abundance of time to figure out their next plan moving forward. This team was supposed to win a championship with the signing of Cousins 2 years ago and the extensions added to the defense, now it looks there in a quick rebuilding mode trying to get younger and gain back capital. I hope the Vikings find a way to get both Harris and Griffen back as I love having both on my team but with that being said they are deserving of their worth and it’s very easy to picture the Vikings losing both in free agency. I want to end on this though, Rhodes has had a decrease in production over the last two years and is another big cap hit for the Vikings in 2020, look out for his name as the next big cut/trade coming out of the NFC North in the coming weeks.